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What had been catapulting leaps, swings and slides become slower, steadier acrobatics: a supported back walkover; a flip that sticks its landing, rather than springing into the next move.

After training for up to 40 hours a week and two years of home-schooling, Hyman finally quit the sport at 14 with mental blocks so severe she was unable to do a back walkover on the balance beam, a skill she had been doing for years.

Sean, why did you feel it was important for Normani to have that solo, with the back walkover, in her V.M.A.s performance?

So even what you saw on the V.M.A.s, me doing the back walkover going into the split — there was a moment where I was like: “Wait, I don’t know if I’m going to do the back walkover. I don’t want to stress out over it. I have other things to stress out over.”

At one point, a male dancer spins into a back walkover; at another, a ballerina arrives late to where the others have clustered in a circle.